Ahok case spreads hate

The combination of a guilty verdict followed by a two-year jail sentence is the worst court judgement in a long time. The man on the receiving end is the governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, better known by his nickname, Ahok. He was convicted of blasphemy, one of most nebulous of thought crimes. The verdict makes Indonesia directly exposed to imminent violence of the most destructive kind. And the hatred the court promoted will spread through the region.

Proof, if any were even needed, is already at hand. The hate-filled Islamists behind the charges brought against Ahok, jubilant at their appalling legal victory, have publicised their plans for a “next step” in this struggle which the judge launched last week. It is to attack ethnic Chinese. The aim is to return Indonesia to the horrible days under Sukarno.

The racist, anti-Chinese campaign will target the economic inequality of ethnic Chinese by once again tearing down shops, markets and businesses. The stated aim of the campaign includes intimidating foreigners as well, in particular ethnic Chinese. The goals were stated last Friday by the shadowy and influential Bachtiar Nasir of the National Movement to Safeguard the Fatwas of the Indonesian Ulemas Council, known in Bahasa Indonesian as GNPF-MUI.

To be clear, this is a group with no popular authority. It is a rebel against the country’s two huge, mainstream Islamic groups. GNPF-MUI has only the ability to raise repulsive and hateful rallies in the capital, with masked and thuggish “security guards” on all sides. In short, with its assumed religious smugness, combined with populist and only recently defeated xenophobia, it has gone in three months from being a pest to become one of the most influential hate groups within Asean.

Ahok is a Christian and both a friend and confidante of Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Widodo himself has a history with GNPF-MUI. During the 2014 presidential election campaign, the Islamist Mr Nasir and his group ran blatantly false propaganda claiming the president has Chinese blood, and that he is a closet Christian. The fact that both of these are nonsense doesn’t impress Mr Nasir. “Ethnic sentiment cannot be denied,” he said last week, and with the Jakarta governor shoved aside, the road is open to attack the president — and the presidency.

Asean, all its governments and security forces must now adapt to this new threat from Indonesia. During the bad old days of Sukarno and Suharto, it is estimated that up to a million ethnic Chinese were slaughtered. Those presidents brought in laws targeting the minority population. Use of the Chinese language in all forms was banned. Jakarta refused to establish diplomatic relations with China and Taiwan. Relations were cool at best with Singapore and countries with influential Chinese minorities, Thailand included.

It is unacceptable that Indonesia should be in danger of retreating to those days. A globalised world includes a democratic Indonesia, which properly recognises the rights of foreign and ethnic Chinese. Relations with Beijing are friendly and Chinese business is investing in the country.

Indonesia has arguably the best record in the world in suppressing present-day terrorists. Violent, emotional and xenophobic Islamism is a different problem. One wishes President Widodo and his 250 million peaceful fellow citizens well in battling the new threat.

But Asean must take note of a pro-violence group that threatens to spread. In this, Mr Nasir and his GNPF-MUI have done us a favour in laying out their next steps. This dangerous and unpopular Islamist ideology endangers the region.

Asean, all its governments and security forces must now adapt to this new threat from Indonesia.